Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming April 2016 12 the dealers, everyone’s been trained on AML law, trained on CTR, trained on suspicious activities. We are not sitting here doing whatever we want. The outside world has to know this. We are in the US. So it’s like Las Vegas, like any casino on the Strip. Whatever they are doing, that’s what we are doing. We are in the same place. Because it’s very convenient for the mainland Chinese customer to come on a four-five hour flight, no visa, and come in and play, we’re fortunate enough to have a Commission that’s investigating and following up and finding out if it is possible for us to have a Macau style casino in a US territory. [Asian] customers come to the Las Vegas Strip, yes, but they don’t have it [there] because they’re so few and far between … it’s too far. Here, guys are hopping on our private jet, and they’re here. So we can have it, whereas Vegas can’t do that because they don’t have the activity. IAG: What do mean by “Macau style casino,” and what’s the compliance impact? MB: What’s happening now, what’s approved, is an individual rolling program. Everyone understands the slot card: put your card in and earn points, and you can buy food, you can buy gifts with that. It’s the same thing. It’s a rebate program on the table. That’s what the rolling program is, dead chips turning over. We are paying 1.3% of that total roll. That’s what this person gets. And that’s on an individual basis. So I’m giving an individual customer US$1 million credit, he plays and, in time, he turns it over, I give him his commission rebate and that’s it. He goes home. That’s been going on since we opened, this rolling program which the Commission fully approved. I grant that individual credit, and they get a rolling program. IAG: Is the rolling program available for cash, too? MB: You can start off here with a US$20,000 [cash] rolling program. It’s tiered. Right now that’s 1%, then it goes up to 1.1, 1.2 … 1.3 is a certain number and above. So anybody can join, from US$20,000 and above. Now the Commission has approved step two. They are now allowing us to give rolling credit, and you distribute money to the four people you brought with you. You can call that an agent [program]. You’re bringing your four-five people with you, you’re giving them money to play with. Again, I reinforce, we know who those four-five people are because we have their passports, we have their identification, we know everything about them, but I’m only dealing with you on credit. I’m still rating everybody, but I give you US$5 million; [if] you want to give them all a million apiece, it’s up to you. The Commission’s approved that. So now we have 10 applications on file that have been submitted to the Commission that they are going to investigate. Is this person here a junket rep in Macau? Does he work in Korea, or even the US? If they are affiliated in the US or Macau, they’ll look at that and give a little benefit if they are already working in Macau. Once our first agent is approved – we haven’t started that yet – but once the Commission gives their full approval, then we’ll have that, and, honestly, that will be the first in the US. To really have a program where I’m giving one gentleman credit, and he is giving money to play with to these people he brought with him. But I’m only dealing directly with the agent [as far as credit goes], so that’s step one and step two. Cover Story As we get closer to getting [Grand Mariana] to open, our goal, and the Commission knows this, once they’re used to the 1.3 individual then we want them to get comfortable with giving one person credit [to distribute]. Then we’ll talk about profit sharing, where it is exactly like Macau where I’m going to give not only the one person – not a junket company – whatever amount of credit we give, and we work on a profit sharing basis, whether it is 60-40 like Macau, 70-30 like wherever else, I’m hearing some are even 85-15 out there now. IAG: So it’s not junket companies. You could, say, give the credit to [Suncity Group Chairman] Alvin Chau ... MB: Correct. We’re not giving rooms to anyone. There’s not the Neptune Room, the Suncity Room ... it’s basically first come-first served, and if Alvin Chau wants to bring 10 of his guys with him – I hope he does, we’ll give Alvin whatever he wants – and all the people that he brought, we know who they are. Again, no one plays on these tables that we don’t know who they are. I’m very comfortable now with what’s happening. We have the right people in place. Everyone is fully aware, the cage, the dealers, everyone’s been trained, on AML law, trained on CTR, trained on suspicious activities.